Ryebridge Construction and London Luton Airport have been confirmed as the first aviation project finalist for project of the year up to £10m.
While the awards ceremony in June is unlikely to go ahead the achievement is significant. Foxtrot Taxiway is an exceptional example of value engineering and environmental management. The project contained key challenges that needed to be overcome to ensure that the project was completed on time and within budget. Primarily the site is located above an historic landfill site. Significant ground remediation and dynamic compaction reduced soil export while lime stabilisation and compaction of the ground ensured necessary CBR rating enabling the Taxiway construction.
The new taxiway is 520m long, and required 6,000m3 of concrete and 110,000 hours to complete. 9km of electric cables connect the 150 LED lights on the new taxiway.
Taxiway Foxtrot also includes one of the largest remote de-icing facilities in Europe. The facility can de-ice up to seven planes at once and incorporates 600m of drainage to ensure that all de-icing liquid is captured and disposed of safely. This will help the airport to maintain on-time departures during exceptionally cold weather.
Neil Thompson, Operations Director at LLA said: “This new taxiway will enable us to efficiently manage the ever-increasing number of aircraft that use the airport. The de-icing facility will also help us to and our airline partners to deliver punctual departures year round, whatever the weather.”
Daniel Coyle, Managing Director at Ryebridge Construction said: “This project was extremely challenging and presented new problems that we were able to overcome with innovative and solution focused thinking. Collaboration and a client centric approach meant we achieved the best possible outcome which is on-time and within budget delivery. Over 100,000 hours worked with no accidents is a testament to our working practices.”